1. Queen’s Garden follows the life of Brenda Jean Aoki and her life in the Westwide on the California coast. It includes her childhood years with her boyfriend Kali, Aunty Mary, and Smoke in the early 1960’s. Brenda also experiences high school with Sherry, Steven, and Hai during the Vietnam War and the early 1970s. Queen’s Garden concludes with Brenda’s adulthood in the 1980s and her life as a teacher still in the same town where she grew up after leaving for college. Brenda explores her identity as a member of the Westside and in relation to her white classmates and friends, as well as the community obligations that she eventually comes to face.
2. The intrusion occurs with Kali and Brenda’s fight after Steven kisses Brenda afterschool. Brenda gets angry because she wants to “go to college” and get out of the Westside, while Kali brings up that he thought they would be married and be together forever. Brenda says she doesn’t want to just be someone’s mother and that the Westside doesn’t have any opportunities. This break-up leads to Brenda to leave town, and fast forwards into adulthood where she eventually comes to terms with her own community and background.
3. This is the day that Brenda decides to tell us her life story, starting with her teenage years in the Westside.
4. What is the dramatic question that should be answered by the end of the play? How has Brenda’s childhood impacted the person she is today? Will Sherry’s son follow in the path of his father? Is she still a part of the Westside community? What happened to Aunti Mary?
5. Exposition that “everyone knows” is evident throughout much of the narrator’s actions. Her description of her background and where she lives is something that all of the characters and the readers are aware of up front. Brenda’s introduction is transparent and allows the audience to have a personal look at her own life.
Kali represents exposition that is only known after the character reveals it themselves. Kali corrects Brenda on his time in “jail”, where he was actually tortured in Thailand (possibly over a failed drug deal?). Kali’s experiences eventually work to explain his mental breakdown and his eventual suicide mission at the end of Queen’s Garden. 6. Identify the most theatrical moment in the play and of what importance it seems to be. Hai also uses this type of exposition when discussing her family in Vietnam, when she tells Brenda about having to perform sexual favors on the captain who saved her and about the death of her sister.
7. List some of the themes of the play. Identity in multiethnic families and communities Communal family What should or shouldn’t happen with immigrants (especially concerning assimilation) Gang violence/ Race Violence Women in marginalized communities (Sherry, Rosie, Aunti Mary, Brenda herself, Hai)
8. The major thing Brenda wants to achieve is to attend college and effectively “get out” of the Westside. However, this “want” leads to a break-up between Brenda and Kali, with Brenda criticizing the limited dreams that Kali has for the both of them, and how she doesn’t want to simply be someone’s mother depending on welfare checks. Brenda effectively leaves her “ohana” family/community to attend college elsewhere.
As a teacher, Brenda wants to make changes in her students’ lives in the Westside and to help them achieve the “freedom” she had when she left. In a way, she is projecting onto these students the goals that she never really ended up achieving. The primary example is Rosie, who eventually has a child with a fellow student who is later killed in a gang conflict. Things that stand in Brenda’s way are the same forces that drove Kali and Smoke into gang violence, and an inability to relate to the students. This is visible with Brenda’s discussion with Rosie, telling her to leave her boyfriend until he chooses “her or the gang” in order to prevent herself from being hurt by him again.
At the end of the play, Brenda’s main goal is to help Kali. Brenda does love him, despite all of his faults and his eventual breakdown, but I believe her pride is a major obstacle to her actually returning to the Westside before Kali’s suicide.
9.The roses in Aunti Mary’s garden are a major image in the play, as they are included in the title, the first major scene, and in the closing scene. Mary’s garden is the “only one on the Westside” with roses, and it almost seems out of place with Brenda’s description of it in her adult years. The roses reference not only the idealized Westside of Brenda’s youth, but the beautiful feeling of family that Aunti Mary showed to Brenda and all of her friends. The roses are deserted and trampled in the end, as is Brenda’s perception of the Westside now, but Brenda still reminisces over the roses – as she reminisces over her memories despite all of the pain that they remind her of.
The teacups that Hei brings from Vietnam are also examples of images. The teacups are seemingly innocuous to Brenda at first, but she later realizes their significance in Hei’s life. They are the only thing that she has left of her entire family from Vietnam, and she chooses to share them with Brenda. Brenda is effectively her new family – the one person who bothered to actually know her in high school (even though it was forced) and eventually came to see one another as “sisters”.
10. A major part of Queen’s Garden is the idea of “ohana”, a family that includes your own choice of “kin” and is considered a source of connection between the individual and the community they live in. Most of the people in Brenda’s life that are influential are not actually her own relatives – they are people that she chose to be around, to live with, or to love. One of the major themes is that the connection of this chosen family is just as influential as your birth family, and often defines most of your life experiences. It is also a bond that can never be broken – just like your birth family. The idea of “ohana” is evident between Hei and Brenda, but also Kali, Aunti Mary, and Smoke.
Queen’s Garden also examples the plight of second-generation immigrant families. Brenda’s actual family seems to be focused on assimilation and acting the “proper American way”, making their own pharmacy (which is eventually bought out) and criticizing Brenda for speaking out against the Vietnam War. Brenda’s father is also described as a “typical Nisei”, a second-generation Japanese-American who was most likely interned during World War II. This contrasts greatly with Aunti Mary and Kali’s family, who emphasize their Hawaiian heritage not only in the language they speak but in surfing, traditional boat races, and the kalua pig party.
1. Queen’s Garden follows the life of Brenda Jean Aoki and her life in the Westwide on the California coast. It includes her childhood years with her boyfriend Kali, Aunty Mary, and Smoke in the early 1960’s. Brenda also experiences high school with Sherry, Steven, and Hai during the Vietnam War and the early 1970s. Queen’s Garden concludes with Brenda’s adulthood in the 1980s and her life as a teacher still in the same town where she grew up after leaving for college. Brenda explores her identity as a member of the Westside and in relation to her white classmates and friends, as well as the community obligations that she eventually comes to face.
2. The intrusion occurs with Kali and Brenda’s fight after Steven kisses Brenda afterschool. Brenda gets angry because she wants to “go to college” and get out of the Westside, while Kali brings up that he thought they would be married and be together forever. Brenda says she doesn’t want to just be someone’s mother and that the Westside doesn’t have any opportunities. This break-up leads to Brenda to leave town, and fast forwards into adulthood where she eventually comes to terms with her own community and background.
3. This is the day that Brenda decides to tell us her life story, starting with her teenage years in the Westside.
4. What is the dramatic question that should be answered by the end of the play?
How has Brenda’s childhood impacted the person she is today?
Will Sherry’s son follow in the path of his father? Is she still a part of the Westside community?
What happened to Aunti Mary?
5. Exposition that “everyone knows” is evident throughout much of the narrator’s actions. Her description of her background and where she lives is something that all of the characters and the readers are aware of up front. Brenda’s introduction is transparent and allows the audience to have a personal look at her own life.
Kali represents exposition that is only known after the character reveals it themselves. Kali corrects Brenda on his time in “jail”, where he was actually tortured in Thailand (possibly over a failed drug deal?). Kali’s experiences eventually work to explain his mental breakdown and his eventual suicide mission at the end of Queen’s Garden. 6. Identify the most theatrical moment in the play and of what importance it seems to be. Hai also uses this type of exposition when discussing her family in Vietnam, when she tells Brenda about having to perform sexual favors on the captain who saved her and about the death of her sister.
7. List some of the themes of the play.
Identity in multiethnic families and communities
Communal family
What should or shouldn’t happen with immigrants (especially concerning assimilation)
Gang violence/ Race Violence
Women in marginalized communities (Sherry, Rosie, Aunti Mary, Brenda herself, Hai)
8. The major thing Brenda wants to achieve is to attend college and effectively “get out” of the Westside. However, this “want” leads to a break-up between Brenda and Kali, with Brenda criticizing the limited dreams that Kali has for the both of them, and how she doesn’t want to simply be someone’s mother depending on welfare checks. Brenda effectively leaves her “ohana” family/community to attend college elsewhere.
As a teacher, Brenda wants to make changes in her students’ lives in the Westside and to help them achieve the “freedom” she had when she left. In a way, she is projecting onto these students the goals that she never really ended up achieving. The primary example is Rosie, who eventually has a child with a fellow student who is later killed in a gang conflict. Things that stand in Brenda’s way are the same forces that drove Kali and Smoke into gang violence, and an inability to relate to the students. This is visible with Brenda’s discussion with Rosie, telling her to leave her boyfriend until he chooses “her or the gang” in order to prevent herself from being hurt by him again.
At the end of the play, Brenda’s main goal is to help Kali. Brenda does love him, despite all of his faults and his eventual breakdown, but I believe her pride is a major obstacle to her actually returning to the Westside before Kali’s suicide.
9. The roses in Aunti Mary’s garden are a major image in the play, as they are included in the title, the first major scene, and in the closing scene. Mary’s garden is the “only one on the Westside” with roses, and it almost seems out of place with Brenda’s description of it in her adult years. The roses reference not only the idealized Westside of Brenda’s youth, but the beautiful feeling of family that Aunti Mary showed to Brenda and all of her friends. The roses are deserted and trampled in the end, as is Brenda’s perception of the Westside now, but Brenda still reminisces over the roses – as she reminisces over her memories despite all of the pain that they remind her of.
The teacups that Hei brings from Vietnam are also examples of images. The teacups are seemingly innocuous to Brenda at first, but she later realizes their significance in Hei’s life. They are the only thing that she has left of her entire family from Vietnam, and she chooses to share them with Brenda. Brenda is effectively her new family – the one person who bothered to actually know her in high school (even though it was forced) and eventually came to see one another as “sisters”.
10. A major part of Queen’s Garden is the idea of “ohana”, a family that includes your own choice of “kin” and is considered a source of connection between the individual and the community they live in. Most of the people in Brenda’s life that are influential are not actually her own relatives – they are people that she chose to be around, to live with, or to love. One of the major themes is that the connection of this chosen family is just as influential as your birth family, and often defines most of your life experiences. It is also a bond that can never be broken – just like your birth family. The idea of “ohana” is evident between Hei and Brenda, but also Kali, Aunti Mary, and Smoke.
Queen’s Garden also examples the plight of second-generation immigrant families. Brenda’s actual family seems to be focused on assimilation and acting the “proper American way”, making their own pharmacy (which is eventually bought out) and criticizing Brenda for speaking out against the Vietnam War. Brenda’s father is also described as a “typical Nisei”, a second-generation Japanese-American who was most likely interned during World War II. This contrasts greatly with Aunti Mary and Kali’s family, who emphasize their Hawaiian heritage not only in the language they speak but in surfing, traditional boat races, and the kalua pig party.